Category: Nat’s Cities

Lately I am trying to take more and more baths because of my back problems. So I decided to check out the good bath products that could make me relax and smell good. I know Occitane is a great brand, and has great products. So I went to their store in Geneva.
When you enter the store, you smell all these aromas from “la Provence”, and you basically are tempted to buy everything. I asked for the “lavender, fizzy pebble for the bath”, and they took out a pack of three and informed me that they are sold separately for CHF 5.50,- each. I thought it was expensive, but thought this is supposed to be the “caviar” of the bath products so bought two; and told to myself you will use them for special days.
So when the special day arrived, I was all excited about it, effectively the water became purple, a nice smell filled the room. But honestly once you are in it, it didn’t relax me or made me feel more special than any other brand. Actually I might even say, I felt more effects with the brand that I buy at the Coop (Geneva’s main grocery store) for CHF 1.50,- than with the Occitane one. At least after the cheap one, my body still smells Lavender… and I can have almost 4 baths for the price of one…
Occitane, I love your body creams but, but forget me for the bath products.

I thought it was time to go finally to the Geneva Motor Show, come on it is one of Geneva’s biggest events…
Before getting to my journey, let me explain you something about Geneva. As it is not a very big city, but still metropolitan, so the airport is 5 km from the city center and has direct connections to expressways, bus lines and railways (SBB-CFF-FFS). So traveling from Geneva is very easy… and the Motor Show takes place at Palexpo, which is by the airport, which means not that far from the city.
So although I decided to go on a week-end, and I knew there would be traffic, I couldn’t believe when I got blocked on the road just after the lake. Thanks God I was with my sister, so we could chat during our an hour journey to the “Promised Land”. We had all the way these traffic polices who would try to direct us to park before the Palexpo, and take the bus… But my sis and I decided that we were not tourist and we would find a way to park close by and not have the hassle to wait for the bus. Finally after an hour and 10 minutes of drive, we were parked at l’Arena (which is by the airport as well) and walking towards the show.
It was very packed, so we checked the map and decided a specific route to not lose time and leave before it gets crazier.
Inside the Halls; where the cars are exposed it was so warm that we could barely breath… we tried to see the cars, but there were so many people that we didn’t even manage to approach them. And the cherry on top of the cake was the Porsche stand. They had put a barrier all around so you couldn’t get in, so people where lining around, trying to get in as if it was a new hip club opening and you had to be in the list to access. And as we all know that is the trick for the new clubs, they don’t let people in with the excuse of “it is a private party” or “you are not on the list”. Therefore there is a big line outside, and makes people even more want to see what it is all about. And believe me from my own experience, 80% of those clubs are actually empty… it is just an illusion and a great marketing trick.
But unfortunately for Porsche we could see inside “the barriers”, only 5 cars and sales people. They looked more like caged zoo animals, and I felt like looking for a sign saying “please do not feed the animals”
But wait, isn’t the car show supposed to be “The” place where people can have access to the cars they would normally not? I mean isn’t it the whole purpose of it? what are they afraid of? that someone is gonna touch the car? and then what? every stand had someone cleaning the cars, can’t Porsche afford one???
Honestly, if they wanted to make a statement, it didn’t really work for me, and the worst because of them I almost fainted because there was so many people outside that I was blocked between a stinking men and and hit by the back pack of another men…
So after an hour and 10 minutes of traffic, we did the show in 50 minutes so we couldn’t take it anymore. If you ask which cars I saw, I cannot even answer you, the only thing that I saw was people, and cars from a distance.
Maybe I should stick to their website and the news so I can really see the cars, and go to their showroom if I want to approach the cars.
I have spent more than two hours in my car (let’s not forget the traffic on the way back), to go and come back from La Terre Promise and personally it wasn’t worth it!!!

Last night it was the 9th year anniversary of the Capocaccia Geneva…. one of the nights not to miss in Geneva. It is located in Confederation Centre right at the heart of Geneva. Normally I go there every Thursday for the Milanese Happy Hour, where you have a food buffet and great music. Last night we had several food buffets, full of Italian specialties, a champagne stand, mojito corner and big wine stand. A great DJ, and even singers…
The crowd was great, the usual Capoholics, bankers, Geneva socialites, and party people.
The restaurant is quite small, but they had the genius idea to take all the outside as well, and although we are freezing in Geneva these days, as it is in a mall protected by glass doors, and full of people, it was not a problem to be outside… and even smoke
I was happy cause managed to see so many people that I haven’t seen for a while, you know with all my trips and all, met new people, had few drinks, ate well, and had great fun.
what a woman can expect more? a man? well there were beautiful men and women, but I was just in the mood to catch up with my old friends… men can wait another party, another time….
So thank you guys to throw another great party and I urge everyone to go and eat their delicious paninis for lunch, or simply enjoy their happy hours… believe me it is great to have a place like Capo in Geneva, where having fun and spending a good time is guaranteed!!! I will say A++ for Capocaccia Geneva

In every country I live or even visit, I always manage to have someone who comes home for my massage and nails… although in NY you don’t need anyone for the nails, cause there are more nail spas than Starbucks at every corner of town. but the problem is for waxing…
Boys, this normally doesn’t include you , unless u want to have your chest waxed In Geneva, I have my massage therapist, who is amazing and I know she does waxing as well, but I prefer to use my time with her having a good massage. For the nails, I have the quickest woman of the world. And I know in Geneva there is a network of Bresilians who does it as well, for a cheaper price, but I personally don’t really like they way of putting the nail polish… they basically color all your fingers, and then with the nail polish remover clean the sides… I wear always dark nail polish colors, so imagine the mess, I end up having irritated blue/purple.blackish fingers….
anyway let’s talk about the waxing…
in Geneva, everything needs to be by appointment, but I discovered this place, where you don’t take an appointment, you can go any time you want, and you never wait more than 15 min. And the plus is that you can buy a yearly card, so you pay peanuts and it is quick.
So if you are in town and you have half an hour to kill before your next appointment, you can just go to L’ile de Beaute and get over with it.

Last night I was planing to spend a calm Sunday evening home, when a very good friend called me to say he is in town with a friend, and he booked at Tse-Yang, one of Geneva’s most famous Chinese restaurant. Personally I think it is a little overpriced and prefer the Chinese in my neighborhood, but anyway got ready and went to join them. The Tse-Yang is situated at the Kempinsky hotel (old Hilton) and has an amazing view. One of the big problems of this restaurant is that beside the regular stuff they keep hiring these Chinese students, who basically know three words of French and some English, so you can definitely expect an error in your order, we were lucky, simply one dish was missing and they brought it before we finish the dinner.
So overall ok food, great view, ok service, I would say a good night and the company was great so cares…
After dinner we decided to go to the Leopard Lounge, one of the only places open in Geneva on Sundays. By the way did I tell you that Geneva is a ghost city on winter Sundays? everything is closed, the weather is cold, so not really much to do.
I had been to the Leopard Lounge during week nights and it is always quite full, and normally there is a live band, that is generally good. In case you don’t remember the name of the lounge, the decor makes sure to remind you… the walls, the carpet, the pillows and lots of small details are all in leopard print, and last nigh we were lucky cause on the tv there was a documentary on leopards. The crowd is quite mix, no teenagers, but lot’s of secret lovers, some “ladies” looking for clients, some “ladies” with clients, and some others like us who just wanna have a drink. We went for one drink but off course left almost before they close the bar at 2am.
The report of the night, good way to spend a Sunday night if you don’t wanna be a couch potato, even though you regret it on Monday morning, but it was worth it…

Last night I was invited to a dinner at a friends’ house a little outside of Geneva, now that I have a Tom Tom (a GPS), I am very confident finding addresses cause generally I have such a bad sense of direction that I can be lost in my neighborhood… actually the only time I am good with directions is when I need to find a shop…. Go figure why!!! So it has been 1 year that I have a love/hate relationship with my Tom Tom, it is a woman’s voice who is telling how to go, and sometimes she is playing tricks on me… and last night she made me pass through some roads that I am not sure where actually for cars, thanks god my little fiat panda 4×4 is not afraid of any road. My problem was on my way back, where my Tom Tom friend that I call “the girl in the box”, has decided to make me suffer and froze her screen, so I didn’t know which road to take, and almost got lost in Geneva’s countryside… I was lucky cause I found my way back, I guess a new store is about to open in my neighborhood

This new friend is an event planner, and I already attended to the store and restaurants openings and parties she did, and I loved them, so I was quite excited to see how she will organise a 14 people seated dinner. It was great… although she kept saying that her “party trick was to give lots of liquids to her guests, so they will starve and won’t criticize the food”, the food was delicious and the “apple martinis” were to die for and made more than one victim….
after what I saw; and I guess by now u know that I am a big critic; if u want to have a store opening, a new business launch even a house dinner to throw, and you are new in Geneva, you should contact her company cause beside the fact that she is great event planner, she has a very good listing of people!!!!

In a city calm like Geneva, the Car Show Week is one of the busiest weeks. People from all around Europe come to see the new cars. The airport is overcrowded, the roads on the rive droite are blocked, and restaurants are full of people. What a change for Geneva where in winter after 7pm the roads are quasi-empty.
I am waiting the first craziness to leave to go and see the car show, i heard this year it is all about futuristic cars… who knows someone might need to go to space ….
But in the meantime I decided to go for lunch to one of my favorite spots in town, Quirinale. It is more known for the evening crowd, where you can have a drink at bar, then have dinner and after return to the bar for a last drink or for dancing. And one of the good points for me is that, the crowd is not full of teenagers…
for lunch normally it is more quite, and nice to eat around the bar. But today I went with my mother and sister, so we took a table. it was full, more businessman than tourists.
Normally the service is good but i guess they changed the staff, and with our luck we had a new waiter… the poor guy seemed lost, and overwhelmed… we had to repeat everything cause he manage to never get it right the first time. And when we asked for some extra bread, he brought a bread basket put it on our table, and with his hands took one by one all the remaining breads and put them in the new basket. I saw the shock in my mom’s eyes, i was laughing… then came the coffee order, he brought us the coffees, and one sugar, and when we asked for more, one by one he brought us little sugar packages and throw them at the table…. no comment
In a little bistrot I wouldn’t mind about that kind of a service, but at Quirinale, where it is suppose to be a chic restaurants, and where you cannot leave without dropping 50usd (without alcohol), I think they should really train the waiters before letting them work.
Overall the food was ok, but they should improve big time the service…

Monday morning we went to see a fashion show, Federico Sangalli (http://www.federicosangalli.it/), he is one of the new upcoming designers. They had changed the time of the show, so I managed to see only the last 4 outfits that I liked a lot. And we went back stage to meet and congratulate him. I urge you to check his line.
In the afternoon I had meetings in Lugano, Switzerland and took a flight from Lugano to Geneva.
If you have never been to the airport of Lugano get ready… it is so small that it looks like a parking lot with mini planes. When you first arrive you feel the need to double check if you are at the right spot. Once you make your check-in, you cannot access to the gates, they open them only 45 minutes before the departure. Actually they are only 3 gates, and it looks like a waiting room of a doctor office. And the good point is that it is very clean, and thanks to the lack of extreme air traffic, you always leave on time.
I was quite happy to leave from Lugano instead of Milano Malpensa where it is a total chaos….

So I spent a long week-end in Milan for the fashion week, on Sunday night we went to have dinner at Nobu, which is located in via Manzoni at the Armani store that makes the whole block. When i used to live in Milan, Nobu was favorite spot, during the aperitivo, they would put a buffet full of delicious food. Now they just bring you a bento box with few selection but it is still quite yummy. I guess the crisis even hit Nobu and Armani…
Although it was Sunday night, and I guess thanks to fashion week, there was a nice crowd and to my big suprise, we could smoke. My friends told me that they have spent a ridiculous amount of money to build a ventilation system, that aspires the smoke very quickly. Effectively people were smoking but there was no smoke or bad smell. Anything to watch??? well beside our cute bartender Andrea of 20 and something with his dimples and little arrogance, there was a professional football player, Boriello with few friends.
Overall, I still give an A+ to Nobu Milano, good food, good service and good people.

Yesterday I arrived to Milano, as it is the fashion week, the city was full of fashion people running from one show to the other, and paparazzi hoping to get a glimpse of celebrities…
At night my friend booked a restaurant called Ibiza, which is there forever. We arrived at 9.30 pm and were sitting in the right side room, the rest was almost empty. Soon after people started to come, and by 10.30pm the place was packed with wannabes, young girls of 18 years old with never ending legs with their date who could be their dad, and a has been football player, Bobo, with his entourage who was there just for a free meal.
The food was decent, and service very quick. By midnight the waiters started to distribute ashtrays to every table. that it a great point, as it has been years that smoking is forbidden in restaurants in Milan.
My opinion, overall it was a great evening, was funny to watch people and gossip about them. But if you want to spend a night catching up with your friends, don’t go to the right side room, the music and the people are so loud that you even have difficulties to hear your own thoughts… go to the other room where it is non-smoking and much calmer… but again you will miss all the fun.